Chapter 8 Adri
Adri wasn’t surprised to find several of the fighters with no debt had packed up and left by the time they returned to the living quarters above the gym.
Word travelled fast in their networks, and two gruesome, unexplained deaths like they’d seen in the last week were too much risk even for people in their line of work.
Of more concern was that a couple of the indebted fighters had also run off.
Marco might be fairer than the previous owners had been, but he had no tolerance for disloyalty.
“Go and bring them back before Viviana has to officially notice. I’m fine,” Jay said, as Adri hovered in the doorway to the dorms that were on the floor between the gym and the small apartments the older fighters like Adri and Jay could afford to occupy.
As he was making his way back out onto the street to track down the errant fighters, voices raised in argument drifted down the stairs to the mezzanine where Viviana’s office sat.
It wasn’t like her to forget to close it.
Drifting closer, he used his natural stealth to slip silently up the stairs until he could hear what was going on.
“Can you explain how a human with a cell phone got into your fight tonight, then?” a waspish voice asked.
Fuck. That wasn’t good.
“You can tell the Council we have it under control. They’ve been dealt with, Leah,” Viviana replied.
“The pack was already on notice. My supervisor isn’t going to be happy.”
“Do they need to know?”
“Call Marco and get him here. He needs to explain himself.”
“Sweetheart, come on. None of that. We can work this out between us. Woman to woman.” Viviana’s voice was flirtatious.
“I can’t keep covering for you like this.” The voice wasn’t so waspish anymore. Instead, it was breathless.
Adri rolled his eyes and started backing away. Clearly, Viviana didn’t need his help with whoever the Council rep was.
“Let me make it up to you.”
The click of the door being pushed closed cut off any further words as the soundproofing kicked in. At least he knew he had some time before Viviana realised anyone was missing.
Needing to find them as soon as possible, Adri shrugged out of his clothes at the exit before shifting into his jaguar form.
It took him a moment, not as smooth or practised as some of the others, because he didn’t shift all that often.
He didn’t have a reason to. The scents that rolled over him from the street outside were overwhelming in this form, and he sneezed repeatedly before he got himself under control.
Was it risky shifting in public with a council rep just upstairs?
Sure. But there was a whole fucking city out there, and he needed to find the runaways fast.
They were cousins in their late teens—Garett and Finn.
Shifters, like most of their recruits after Marco took over.
Pausing in the shadows, Adri forced his overstimulated senses to focus until he found the thread of their distinctive coyote scent that was tinged with the red liquorice they constantly chewed.
It was fresh. They’d left out this back exit like he’d guessed, heading toward the bus stop.
Keeping to the darkness, Adri bunched his muscles up, springing upward onto a nearby fire escape until he could pad his way across the low rooflines of this part of the city.
The kids were arguing when he found them, Finn tugging at Garret’s arm and trying to get him to turn around.
Like the ambush predator he was, Adri dropped down silently from above, landing between them and the bus stop they were aiming for, knowing his green eyes would be glittering in the darkness.
“Fuck! Adri, you scared the shit out of me,” Finn snapped. Garret looked more wary. “We were just getting some fresh air. Weren’t we, G?” the nervous teen added.
“Yeah, sure,” Garret said.
Adri herded them back to the gym, not shifting back until they were inside. The only thing worse than humans spotting a jaguar prowling the streets would be a naked, muscled cage-fighter chasing after two teens who were pale with fear.
“We wouldn’t have actually left,” Finn whispered.
Adri sighed, pulling on his pants before wrapping an arm around each of them as he directed them back up to their rooms. “I can’t keep you safe if I don’t know where you are. We need to stick together.”
“I know, man, but between what happened at the last two fights and the shifters going missing on the street, I don’t think you can keep us safe at all,” Garret said.
“Who’s gone missing?” Adri asked, brow furrowing in concern.
“A couple of our old crew disappeared near the doc’s place,” Finn said, staring very intently at his feet.
Adri tilted his head in question, waiting for an explanation for the strange behaviour.
“And?”
“And they’re thinking maybe he had something to do with it,” Garret mumbled.
Adri swore under his breath. The ransacking of the clinic was starting to make more sense.
He hadn’t been able to think of a single reason why Rafe would be targeted when he provided free medical services to everyone in the area.
Nervous energy buzzed under his skin as he vibrated with the need to check on Rafe and make sure the violent gang these two fighters used to run with wasn’t going after him again as they spoke.
“Doc doesn’t have anything to do with this. He’s helping Marco fix it, for fuck’s sake.”
The twins looked at each other, a silent conversation he couldn’t follow.
“Is he yours?” Garret asked.
“Why?”
“Because if he’s yours, you should go to him. The crew is afraid. They’re getting reckless.”
“Reckless enough to do more than make a mess, even though he’s with the Lunettis?”
Garret shrugged, looking away.
Adri hesitated, torn between his need to get to Rafe and his need to make sure the two teens didn’t get themselves in any more trouble.
Rafe was big and old enough to look after himself, especially with the pack behind him.
The trouble was that he hadn’t been looking after himself.
He was exhausted. Weaker than he should be.
Especially after the way he’d thrown his magic around at the fight. Dammit.
“Can I trust you two to stay put?”
“Yeah. Like I told G, we’re not even fighting in the ring yet to get targeted by whoever’s killing people. Going missing on the streets is probably preferable to whatever Marco would do to us for running.”
They were too young for the harshest kind of lessons the pack doled out to those who betrayed them, but Adri wasn’t going to point that out to them.
The more afraid they were, the less likely they were to put themselves in danger by leaving.
Pulling them into a hug, Adri held them close until they finally relaxed.
“We’re family here. We don’t run from trouble. We face it. Together. Jay and I have got your backs. Viviana too. We won’t let anything happen to you, but you have to work with us.”
“Sorry, Adri,” they both whispered.
“Now go see if Jay needs a hand,” Adri said, pushing them toward the common room.
“We can come with you if you need backup,” Garret offered.
Adri tipped his chin in acknowledgement, but waved them off. “I’ve got it.”
Not willing to take the time to find shoes and weapons, he ditched his pants to shift again as soon as he reached the exit.
He needed the advantage of his animal’s enhanced senses and fangs.
At least it was late enough that there shouldn’t be many people out, especially in this part of the city where so many supernaturals lived.
The cold, dark night was the perfect cover for his pitch-black fur.
It was no trouble at all to slip back up onto the roof to make his way through the shadows above the buildings of the city towards his doctor.
Satisfaction filled him as he leaped across alleyways and roads, his powerful muscles propelling him through the air to land silent and deadly on the other side. Why didn’t he run like this more often?
Because we’re not allowed to be seen in the city, he reminded his jaguar.
A silent snarl curled his lips as he finally reached the building across from the clinic and watched a group of five young men whispering and posturing as they gestured toward it.
They smelled of jackal and desperation, and they were nervous because the lights were still on.
His doctor was busy working instead of sleeping. Again.
Wishing he’d thought to take the time to grab his phone so he could warn Rafe, Adri stayed where he was, waiting to see which way their fear would fall. He wasn’t without empathy for them if their people were missing, but if they so much as scratched his doctor, he would rend them into pieces.
“We’re wasting time. We go in, we question him, we leave. Marco’s busy elsewhere. As long as he doesn’t call anyone, we’ll be fine,” one of the men snapped.
Pulling a balaclava down over his head, he drew a gun from the back of his pants, leaving Adri with no doubt what kind of questioning he was planning on.
His jaguar lost it the second he saw the flash of the barrel.
As the five men stalked across the road, he poised on the roof above, muscles bunching as he launched himself to pounce onto their leader.
He retained just enough control to wait until his claws slammed into the man’s back before unleashing a thunderous roar that no one would mistake for anything but the wild jaguar he was.
The men he’d ambushed immediately shifted into their jackal forms, clothes tearing and fangs bared as their barks filled the night.
They were much smaller than him, but there were five of the fuckers.
Unfortunately for them, he didn’t play fair.